


What I Already Know

by helens78



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Canon Disabled Character, Disabled Character, M/M, Post-Canon, Reunions, Translation Available
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-14
Updated: 2011-10-14
Packaged: 2017-10-24 15:07:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/264882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helens78/pseuds/helens78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Remorse isn't the only thing that brings Erik back to Charles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What I Already Know

**Author's Note:**

> This is a ficlet based on [Loobee](http://loobeeinthesky.livejournal.com)'s beautiful [Autumn Emotions](http://loobeeinthesky.livejournal.com/176292.html) piece (the second one), and was meant to be written for her birthday... oops. A little late! Happy birthday, Loobee! :D
> 
> Translation: This fic is also available in Chinese, thanks to yue408! [Here's a link](http://www.mtslash.com/viewthread.php?tid=29903&page=1&extra=#pid733602) (it looks like you might need to register, though).

He thought this would be harder.

It isn't _easy_ , walking into the mansion, but he's nodded at, as though expected. He's guided out the back door-- of course he would have an escort, although with no helmet he's no threat to the man he's here to see.

He walks outside, and his eyes track over the grounds. The balustrade where he and Charles stood, a gun in Charles's hand, a smile on Erik's face. A satellite dish in the background, its cold metal surface inextricably linked to Charles in his mind.

And a man in a wheelchair, bundled up in a coat, a high-necked shirt. Fingerless gloves. He's outside, facing the satellite dish, reading.

Erik holds his breath as he walks over. He can't imagine what to do with his hands. Offer one? Keep them to himself? There's been no telling what his reception might be, though he's beginning to hope that, if it were going to be violent, the first strike would have come already.

Charles looks up at him as Erik approaches, smiling. The wind catches Charles's hair, sends a few green leaves of ivy swirling. Erik is as lost to the sight of him now as he was the first time he laid eyes on Charles. Mesmerized. Two years apart have changed him in some ways, some striking, some more subtle. The smile isn't as open and trusting as it might have been once, but there's a hint of hope to it, too.

"Charles--"

"Don't let the first thing you say to me be 'I'm sorry'," Charles intercepts, raising an eyebrow. "I know remorse alone didn't bring you here."

Erik exhales, shaking his head. He pushes back the grief, the heavy sense of loss that's sent him imagining this meeting again and again. Things can never be what they were, and being here reminds him of that, more strongly than he'd anticipated.

"Tell me what you're thinking," Charles urges him. And he looks into Erik's eyes, not even needing the brush of fingers against his temples now. «Tell me what I already know.»

He comes to Charles and offers a hand, finally, palm-up so Charles can slip his into Erik's and squeeze.

"I've missed you," he says, and Charles smiles at him, eyes shining.


End file.
